Prize Specification
Principal Guidelines
The Ivo & Renata Babuška Prize will be awarded every two years in recognition of high-quality interdisciplinary work that targets modeling and numerical solutions of a specific engineering or scientific application.
The value of the work will be measured by the quality of the modeling, mathematics and computational science, its impact on an engineering or scientific application, and the extent to which it brings together interdisciplinary perspectives.
Prize Committee
Formation
The prize committee will consist of five SIAM members selected from the applied mathematics and computational science community, making sure to include two members from research centers/institutes, national laboratories, or industry. The SIAM President will appoint new committee members after consultation with the SIAM Vice President-at-Large. One of the members will be designated by the president as chair.
Members of the prize committee must be appointed at least eighteen months before the prize award date. Two successive committees may not have more than one common member. Immediate past recipients cannot serve as a member of the committee. Current and immediate past committee members are not eligible to receive the prize.
Tenure of the Prize Committee
The committee for each prize award serves from the date of appointment until the prize is awarded. If the committee reports that no prize winner has been chosen, and if this report is accepted by the Executive Committee of the SIAM Council, the committee's duties will be completed. No individual can serve more than two terms.
Selection Procedures
Eligibility
The prize may be awarded to any member or members of the scientific community meeting the general guidelines of the award. The prize should be given for a single piece of work or a single body of work. The prize may be awarded to multiple individuals but only for contributions to a single piece of their collaborative work.
Nominations
Nominations will be solicited in the publications and various relevant electronic newsletters and communications of SIAM and other major scientific and engineering societies at least twelve months before the awarding of the prize. Nominators should consult the Selection Guidelines page for information on how to present achievements and successes outside the academic setting.
Rules of Operation
The prize committee will follow the ‘best practices’ set out in the SIAM document for Selection Committees. The prize committee will follow the SIAM rules for conflicts of interest as posted on the SIAM website.
Recommendation
The committee is to present its recommendation to the president of SIAM at least six months before the date on which the prize is to be awarded. The committee should select at most one prize winner or group of collaborators as discussed in the Eligibility section. Exceptions to this rule must be approved by the Executive Committee of the SIAM Council.
The committee's report must include a written justification (a short report on the committee's deliberations that justifies the recommendation) and a citation of about 100 words suitable for a certificate and that may be read at the time of the award.
The Selection Committee has the authority to choose to abstain from giving the award if there is no acceptable prize winner. If the award is not given for this reason, a new selection committee will be selected for the next award cycle.[1]
Approval by the Executive Committee of the SIAM Council
The president will report the committee's recommendation to the Executive Committee of the SIAM Council, which will accept or reject the committee's choice no later than five months before the award date.
If the committee recommendation is not accepted by the Executive Committee of the SIAM Council, then the prize will not be awarded for that period, and the membership of the award committee will change as described above.
Notification of the Prize Winner
The president will notify the recipient(s) at least four months prior to the award date.
Description of the Award
The Ivo & Renata Babuška Prize award will be $10,000. If more than one person receives the prize, the cash award is to be divided equally among the recipients, and a certificate will be issued to each recipient. As part of the award, the recipient or a single representative of the collaboration may be invited to present a lecture at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering. The lecture will be publicized in meeting announcements. Travel funds will be made available to reimburse one speaker for reasonable travel expenses incurred in attending the award ceremony and giving the lecture.
Award Date
The prize is awarded every two years normally at the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering. If no prize is awarded, the award date then moves forward two years.
Award Presentation
The award will be presented by the president of SIAM, who will announce the award, read the citation, and introduce the lecturer. The announcement of the award will be in SIAM News, the SIAM website, and released to other appropriate scientific journals, electronic newsletters, and major daily newspapers.
Prize History
The funds for the Ivo & Renata Babuška Prize were established from a generous gift from Ivo and Renata Babuška.
[1] An award decision will also be postponed to the next cycle if the number of nominations does not meet the required number to forward to the selection committee. See SIAM Prize Policy for more information.